citymancs

citymancs => citymancs => Topic started by: gavin on August 16, 2026, 14:04:57

Title: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: gavin on August 16, 2026, 14:04:57
Donnarumma, Khusanov, Dias (C), Gvardiol, O'Reilly, Kovačić, Anderson, Semenyo, Foden, Doku, Haaland

Subs: Rulli, Guéhi, Marmoush, Cherki, Nico, Grealish, Aït-Nouri, Nunes, Lewis

Come on you blues
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: Hesperus on August 16, 2026, 15:16:04
Dreadful start.

A starting line up with Kovacic is a failure in transfer planning for me.
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: Vickki on August 16, 2026, 15:34:23
Oh dear, this is not going well  :'(
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: gavin on August 16, 2026, 15:35:58
Should have kept Trafford and binned Donnarumma.
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: KunDB on August 16, 2026, 15:57:04
I'm convinced that Donnarumna is simply not good enough in enough skills, corners & passing out. I don't know why we were so obsessed by him, I definitely would have kept James Trafford.

That said I think we have played well in general first half despite being 2 goals down. Early season it sharpened will improve. Certainly Donnaruma needs to sharpen up an awful lot. 

Overall I'm happy with the performance.
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: Vickki on August 16, 2026, 16:28:44
PSG got rid of Donnarumna for a reason. I agree, we should have kept Trafford. But then again, it's a team game.
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: KunDB on August 16, 2026, 16:30:21
Now I'm unhappy with our performance. We have got much worse this second half. Defending is awful, goalkeeping appalling and attacking is fragmented.

Lack of team bonding and will to win. Second best all round.

The good news is there will be big changes in the next fortnight and then it will matter. This doesn't really matter other than to show how much we need to improve.
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: Hesperus on August 16, 2026, 17:01:14
Garbage first half. Worse in the second. Completely outclassed.

Very early but didn't see anything today to be encouraged by.

I'd make Rodri the best paid player at the club to try and persuade him to stay. Without him we are bang average.
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: Stephen Paul on August 16, 2026, 17:59:14
Not a good result,  but let's see next week when it matters
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: Vickki on August 16, 2026, 19:48:54
Today is the first competitive game this team has played with a full squad. I expect things to improve over the season as the team begins to come and play more regular.
Title: Re: V Arsenal community shield
Post by: gavin on August 16, 2026, 23:22:42
A lot went against us today. Stats wise it wasn't that bad. But there is also no hiding that there were serious deficiencies at the back and in the second half, we were totally toothless. I'm not going to get too concerned with the Community Shield. But next week we need to start with three points at home to Bournemouth. There's work to be done this week to resolve as many of the issues as possible.